Never Fear
by M00nlightfox
Summary: Among the Quirkless, there exists an even smaller group who don't just reject the Quirk way of life, they hate everything it represents. Yumi was raised in such a family, a family whose line had never been tainted by a Quirk - until her. With a unique power, Yumi can only keep her secret for so long before she finds herself among peers at U.A highschool, torn between loyalties.


**Prologue**

Yumi knew she should look away, but she didn't - she couldn't. Something kept her staring be it wonder or a morbid fascination, one made darker by the painful awareness that she wasn't supposed to be feeling this way. Before her eyes, All Might smiled his heroic smile and promised citizens - no, he promised the _world_ everything would be fine. For one tiny second, as he swooped in to save the day, she let herself believe it.

"Yumi?" Behind her, her mother's shrill voice pierced the room. "Yumi, is this what I think it is?" Aghast, Sato Nyoko rushed in, all long hair and elegant limbs. Without another word she snatched the remote from Yumi's hand and switches the TV off, the sudden silence startling in her wake. "What have I told you about" - she paused, perhaps searching for a name dastardly enough. "What have I told you about _that man_?" She settled with, hands on hips and eyes cold as she stared down at her daughter.

Quiet and still, Yumi finally felt the emotions she was supposed to be feeling. Disgust for That Man, fear for the Quirkless that seemed to be getting less and less, and shame that she allowed herself even a small moment to be comforted by his smile. "I'm sorry mother," she said, eyes domed and piercing. "I won't do it again. I was only"-

"What have I told you about that man, about them all?" Still her mother persisted, unbending even at the look of attrition sent her way.

"That they're wrong, they're..." Yumi broke off, not sure why she couldn't finish.

"They're abominations."

At such an ugly word combined with her mother's stern voice, Yumi finally felt herself cry, her hands quickly moving to her face to hide the giveaway tears. Above her, Nyoko sighed as if they had been over this a thousand times, before finally softening enough to join her daughter on the floor. Whispering soothing words, she pulled Yumi into her lap, hands stroking down pale pink hair in a way that usually managed to fix everything.

"When will you learn Yumi?" She said, arms tightening around her. "People like us, normal people are dying out. We need to be on our guard now more than ever. This isn't the kind of fight you read in fairy-tales or ones you see on the news, this is real and dangerous. Don't be fooled by his smile little Yumi, he doesn't really care about us."

With one last hug, Nyoko rose back to her feet and although she relented enough to return the remote to Yumi, the child knew enough by now to know she'd be watching. Still, with a small smile she accepted the offering but this time, no All Might graced the screen. If Nyoko had been watching closer, she may have noticed something odd, may have seen the exact moment in which Yumi dropped the remote, only not in a way one might expect. As it were, even the girl didn't notice, so fixated was she on acting normal in front of prying eyes.

* * *

All Might was almost forgotten the next day; instead Yumi sat on the swing, feet scuffing on the ground as she swung back and forth. Raising her hands in the air, she tried to imagine a place where none of this Quirk and Quirkless stuff existed, a place where her dad was still around and her mum smiled more. Higher and higher she went, feet no longer scuffing but extended now, as straight as her arms and for a second it almost felt like she was flying.

But then she really was, when someone shoved against her swing with enough force to send her spiralling through the air, a tangle of limbs and pale hair. She fell in the sand with a gasp, heart thudding so hard it was almost painful.

A sneering smile awaited her when she turned round, and she instantly knew she was in trouble when she saw his eyes, lit up with hate and perhaps even a small bit of fear. Still it didn't stop the boy from coming closer, backed up by his friends on either side. "What are you doing here? I'm surprised your mum lets you out with us _monsters,_ " He laughed, as if he said something far more intelligent than he actually did.

Monsters. That word was enough to make Yumi flinch, instantly conjuring memories of her mother running outside to rescue her daughter from a perceived corruption. "I don't want to fight Riku," she said, trying to force courage into her voice.

"You think you could fight me if you wanted to?" At that Riku bared his teeth and stood tall, his leathery wings that had remained out of sight before unfurling, towering upwards to the sky. Yumi allowed herself a moment to stare at them and wonder... "You can't fight anyone, you're just a nobody."

She ran then, ran so hard she thought her lungs would simply give out. But she knew worse was to come, it always did.

She didn't stop until she hit the side of an old building, an ugly piece of concrete that had been there for as long as she could remember. Standing there Yumi tried to catch her breath, the cold wall against her back helping to soothe her nerves if only a little. But then she heard him again, heard his loud and taunting voice carry across the winds. She hadn't escaped yet.

"Please no, please no," she repeated to herself, as if a mantra as she clenched her eyes shut. Please, please, please...

She wished she were back on the swing, hands so high she could almost touch the clouds and-

"Where are you Yumi?"

-shoes kicking off the ground with a movement hard enough to launch herself into the air, taking her up up and away.

And then it happened. Without so much as a warning, Yumi was standing with her shoes atop grass one second, and then atop dirty tiles the next. There had been a brief sensation of falling and of something not quite right, and now suddenly she was inside a building, Riku's taunting voice distant and quiet from here.

She knew with remarkable clarity what had happened, she had passed through that wall as if it had been nothing, as if _she_ had been nothing. How she came to that conclusion so quickly she didn't know, and it was all she could do to stop herself from screaming, hands immediately pressing against her mouth. Did she - Was she...was she one of them?

Those questions crashed through her mind like a wave breaking through a dam, the word Quirk yelling inside her head over and over until she could ignore it no longer. Shaking, she slowly brought her hands up before her face. They still looked normal enough, pale and scrawny as always, but there was no denying what had happened. This shouldn't be possible, she thought to herself. Her family had never been tainted by a quirk, _never_.

Yumi let herself fall to the floor, her mouth arching open in a silent scream as years of taught shame filled her. The ugly word, abomination, entered her mind along with her mother's shrill voice, making her flinch. Is that what she was now, an abomination? Was she fated to bring yet more sadness to her mother's life, to shame her?

She began to cry again, her small body curling into a ball as she hid her face in her arms.

In the midst of her spiralling panic, one voice managed to penetrate, ringing louder than her own self-depreciating and that of her mother's. It was his, That Man's. It was All might and his smile as he told people 'never fear'. She recalled seeing him yesterday as he saved the day, as he made his smile and his light belong to everyone else. Such light didn't deserve such an ugly word, so maybe she didn't either. That thought was enough to ground her, but not stem the horror completely.

She could panic later, but right now she needed to get home.

Her face puffy from crying, Yumi dusted herself off and tried the only door in the derelict building. It was locked.

Never fear!

Trying to take deep breaths, the kind that she had often seen her mother do, Yumi calmed herself before she settled with the idea that she'd simply have to leave the way she came. Ignoring the spike of disgust that thought brought, she surmised that if she had done it once before, surely she could do it again. Another deep breath, Yumi placed her hands against the cold stone wall and clenched her eyes shut.

Nothing happened.

She waited.

Still nothing happened.

She waited until she yelled in frustration, her small voice bouncing off the narrow walls and echoing unnervingly. Any sign of Riku and his friends had been long gone now, and the sky was beginning to darken with tinges of grey, the last vestiges of light hitting the barred window as a warning.

Tears threatening to spill again, Yumi slumped against the wall finally admitting defeat. All Might made it look so easy, as if he had complete control of himself and everything around him. Looking up through her hair, she wondered dimly what he would do in this situation. She looked to the window first and imagined he'd simply bend the bars like paper and escape that way, and then to the door that he could kick down as if it were nothing. In fact he could probably tear through these very walls!

Despite herself she felt a shudder curl through her, his power was terrifying. Her own meager Quirk didn't make it any less so.

Giving up, Yumi pulled her phone out her backpack and finally rang her mother.

She arrived only ten minutes later with a bewildered looking, old man brandishing keys as one might a weapon. "Yumi!" She yelled, running in to sweep her daughter up into her arms tightly. "Yumi I was so worried! Are you alright?" Pulling back slightly, her mother anxiously looked for any wounds.

"I'm fine," she replied, embarrassed as the old man watched the exchange with raised brows.

"But how did you end up here kid?" He interrupted, leaning against the doorframe. "This is an old building with only one way in and out."

Yumi squirmed under his and now her mother's suspicious gaze.

"It was one of them wasn't it?" Nyoko said, voice quiet and tense. Yumi knew who 'them' was without even asking. "One of those awful _freaks_ did this to you." The word freak came out in a harsh whisper that made Yumi flinch, especially now since she too found herself in that category.

Looking up into her mother's tense and pale face, staring into her eyes that shone with something they never used to shine with, Yumi acknowledged to herself then and there that she could never, ever tell her the truth. No matter what happened, she must never know. She couldn't bare to see hatred on her face too.

And so she said nothing, resolving to let her mum make up her own mind about what happened, burying the secret for now until it was nothing but a hidden kernel in her mind. She would not let this Quirk win.


End file.
